That's it in a nutshell. Wow.
A few more details? Okay. We had a fantastic time - all of us, from the just walking tot to the just about grown up teens (and the parents too!). Let me just say that using the train and the plane is a great way to travel for the whole family. The train takes a bit longer than it does to drive - but while driving you'd have to stop and let kids out to run, to pee, to eat and drink. You'd also have to listen to them scream, something Oliver is NOT shy about in the car, let me assure you. And while the plan is somewhat more confining, it's much quicker and has the novelty factor the family vehicle lacks. And between getting there and coming back? We had such a great time! Action packed, but incredibly fun, with enough down time to keep us all (mostly) upbeat and positive. Let me start from the beginning.
Monday, bright and early (four a.m. to be exact!) my mother in law pulled into our yard. Our alarm somehow didn't go off when it was supposed to but luckily I'd almost killed myself getting everything ready all week and it wasn't too big of a deal to jump out of bed and get dressed and ready to go. I was hoping Silas and Oliver would sleep on the way, and Oliver did after a short time, but Silas was wide awake and eager to get there the entire one hour trip to the train station.
I was a little surprised at the casualness of the train station. We piled our suitcases into the back of a pick up truck to be loaded onto the train once it arrived, then stood around in the dirt parking lot next to the tiny station waiting for the train to arrive. When it did finally come, we trooped down the track along with all the other waiting passengers to get to the front cars of the train. To me this seemed odd to be walking all that way with all of our carry on luggage, but in retrospect, what else are you going to do? Have the train stop each time each car arrived at the station so people could board on their car without having to walk?
Anyhow, because we were a group of six (the five of us and Tawny's friend) we were directed to the next car back and given a group of four seats facing each other and two more seats across the aisle. This car was less crowded the first one we boarded and I was pleased with the arrangements. It seemed another eternity (to the boys especially!) before the train was moving, but once we got going it was quite exciting! I've been waiting years to go on a train journey and I was so stoked to be taking my family with me.
I'd packed a giant bag of sandwiches, fruit, muffins, cookies and other snacks and now we dug in and had breakfast while Kamloops fell behind us. The track ran along the North Thompson River almost all morning and the scenery was beautiful. Not that I had a lot of time to admire it. For the first few hours many passengers were still sleeping so I felt obligated to make sure Oliver didn't blunder into them or start digging through their bags or making off with some interesting little tidbit. Silas was way to excited to sit looking out the window, but luckily with two young kids and two involved parents, it wasn't an overwhelming task to keep them out of trouble, it was just time consuming.
We raised up the two aisle seats' footrests and corralled him this way, just to give ourselves a little break:
It didn't take us long to head out looking for the observation car . . . it was two cars back. Far enough away to make it interesting for the boys, not so far it was a chore to go back and forth (which we did, MANY TIMES!). The observation car has a glass dome over the middle portion of the car as well as an upstairs and downstairs portion under the dome. Upstairs are seats, a few with tables, and downstairs was a small snack shop. In the front third of the car there were more tables and padded benches, a neat place to enjoy one of the provided board games or eat your snacks. There was also a dining car, although we didn't venture that far. I had originally thought we'd eat supper there, but I'd brought enough food and we'd snacked so much, we didn't feel it was worth the cost and hassle for all of us to go.
Here's a snapshot of Pyramid Falls, just out of Blue River (I think!):
At nap time we pulled out all four foot rests to create a platform with the seats. Scott managed to convince Silas to sleep with a combination of cuddles and threats - Silas was exhausted and hard to manage and really needed the sleep so I was so glad he was there to help Silas off to sleep while I coaxed Oliver into a nap. Of course, then Scott fell asleep too . . . I had a great picture of the three of them passed out among blankets and backpacks on the platform, but it was of course lost along with my camera : ( .
Edit: Found my camera! Here's the photo:
All this time Tawny and her friend Kyle did what they wanted to do. They played scrabble, napped, snacked and wandered. They admired the scenery, took a few pictures, napped some more, and teased each other. It was really neat to see them together for that long as we usually just get little snapshots of their relationship. It kind of reminded me of Scott and I fifteen or more years ago! But that's another story altogether, isn't it?
We had a stopover in Jasper for an hour so we rushed up and down the main street next to the station and checked out sports shops, bakeries, candy stores and souvenir stands. Scott and I got coffees, Oliver got a cinnamon bun and Silas got an ice cream cone. We all came back full and sticky, but refreshed. Something about 'canned air' in both trains and planes really wears you out and I was glad to sample some of the mountain air outside!
Of course, by this point, we'd been traveling through the rockies for some time. It was awesome to drive through them - the tunnels were a big hit! - and so nice to be able to crane your neck and look around all you liked without worrying for the road. I love being a passenger because I want to see it all!
Toward the end of the trip we all sat in the observation car and admired the lightening storm ahead of us. It was spectacular to see the clouds so far off (not something you can do in BC!) and then oooh! and aaaah! everytime lightening lit the sky after dark. There was a fair bit of rain and some really loud thunder, but the lightening definitely took the show.
We chatted with many interesting people of all ages, from 7 year old Shelby who lives just across the river from us, to a family on holiday from England, to a man heading back home to Ontario after working for six weeks in BC for his company. There were many, many different languages spoken, many different journeys and holidays and just one loooooong train. I highly recommend train travel to everyone! If the 15 hours we spent on board seems like too much, there are much shorter routes to sample. If that seems like it's not enough, heck, go for the whole she-bang and travel from one coast to the other! I hope I get a chance to try that!
More on our trip coming soon!
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